Joyful Overestimation

I’m the kind of writer who joyfully overestimates his own ability every time I sit down to type. And I’m sure I’m not the only one… I smile, pull open my laptop, look at the pages before me and think, “finish editing the whole book today? hell yeah!”

One paragraph later: “finish the whole chapter today? Of course!”

Thirty minutes and a few sentences later: “finish the paragraph today? OBVIOUSLY!”

And then I get three sentences done.

But even that doesn’t diminish the feeling I get when I start working. I wish I could bottle up that feeling–the one at the beginning of a writing session–and maybe sell it to Congress, who might actually get something done for a change…

Thanks, nameless photographer, for your talent in photography. Or photoshop.

Anyway, this all goes back to expectations; specifically the expectations we set for ourselves (I believe I wrote a few posts on this, a while ago… cheque it out https://zachbarnesonwriting.wordpress.com/tag/inspiration/). Some days writing is like hitting all the green lights, and other days it’s not at all. Just like some days just sync up with the greater universe, who gives you the thumbs up to go do your thing and everything is groovy. The catch is that you won’t have those great days (or those terrible days) unless you do you thing *every day. Does that mean that persistence is the key to awesome? Maybe, I honestly don’t know, but it sure does work for me!

When I get three sentences done, I don’t berate myself because I didn’t live up to my expectations. That would be silly. I might get a tad frustrated, but that goes away when I think about tomorrow, and that I’ll be able to try again because, eventually, this work will pay off. Thus, joyful overestimation sans judgement.

Cool thing: I’ve got the first chapter of AVENGARDE absolutely where I want it, and I’m going to post it up here on Friday for all y’all to comment all over. Woo. End, cool thing.

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Zachary Barnes

Zachary Barnes is an American fantasy author who has been writing fiction since 2007. After attending James Madison University for Music Education, Zachary moved to Northern Virginia where he began his career in education. Currently, Zachary is the assistant manager and lead tutor at the Reading and Writing Center at Northern Virginia Community College.